Radian's Oldest Resident Celebrates 104th Birthday

Edna Small, a founder resident of Leslie Loader Court, one of Radian's sheltered housing schemes in Eastleigh, Hampshire, celebrated her 104th birthday this week surrounded by friends and family.

Edna has lived at Leslie Loader Court for 23 years, since the day it opened on 7th April 1987 and has made her mark on the place ever since, even planting the hedges that enclose the grounds. A passionate gardener, even now Edna oversees the gardening in more of a Project Manager's role, delegating the manual duties to her daughters.

All that know Edna, remark that she is indeed a "remarkable lady", although "wonderful" and "amazing" are also often used, but this should come as no surprise due to the rather remarkable life she has lived. In the 1930's Edna was one of the team that cared for R J Mitchell, the Spitfire designer, before his early death at the age of 42. The first prototype Spitfire, the K5054, flew for the first time at Eastleigh, on 5 March 1936. After the RAF had ordered 310 production Spitfires, Mitchell is reported to have said that "Spitfire" was "just the sort of bloody silly name the RAF would choose."

Edna began her nursing at the Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital in Alton. At that time there were strict rules for the young nurses to obey whist training and they were not allowed to mix with the young men in the town. "But I still managed to meet my husband. We had our ways with a nod and a wink as we walked past them." Edna reminisces.

She first met her late husband, Robert Small, as a teenager and they had planned to marry in their youth but Edna's father was against it and the marriage was called off. "In those days, children did what they were told," she remembers.

Both youngsters went on to have happy marriages. Edna married and settled down in Southampton and has two daughters, six grandchildren and 11 great-grand children through her first marriage; she only met Robert again after their respective spouses had passed away. They had found each other again and wonderfully, when Robert proposed, he did so with exactly the same engagement ring that he had first given her 75 years before. At the age of 92, Edna married her childhood sweetheart and they lived blissfully together at Leslie Loader Court until Robert sadly passed away in 2000.